Interviews > Hugo LLorens
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Ambassador Hugo LLorens, a 36-year veteran of the State Department, served as Ambassador to Honduras, when there was a coup (2009), and, in his last tour, as the Special Charge D'Affaires to Afghanistan (2016-2017). In Kabul, LLorens resolved a crisis when the German Embassy was destroyed in a terrorist attack and he directed his team to take the unique step of hosting German colleagues on the U.S. compound, thus sustaining their commitment to Afghanistan. LLorens’ remarks and fuller context about the experience are below following a few questions he answered about relationships and alliances.
Do you find any commonality with this experience in Kabul and your experience in Honduras— in terms of dealing with a crisis and the challenge of the “10,000 mile screwdriver” from DC?
Look, the reality is that in the Department different people have different roles. I certainly did not blame the Legal Advisor’s Office (L) for first wanting to negotiate a MOU with their counterparts in Berlin. However, sometimes being in Washington can distort things. The lawyers had not fully absorbed the reality of what had happened in Kabul, and that we were dealing with a precarious and extreme security situation that had potentially significant foreign policy implications. In this context, we had to make the immediate and emergency decision in Kabul to bring our German colleagues into the compound. L may have wanted the situation to be different, but under the circumstances I had no intention of backing away from my decision. Fortunately, [Under Secretary for Political Affairs] Tom Shannon weighed-in and sorted the issue out with the Secretary.
I also had the good fortune to work with Tom during the Honduran coup crisis in 2009. Tom and I had and have an extremely close personal and professional relationship and we stayed in continuous contact. This ensured that I fully understood all elements of our policy approach and that he and I were completely in lockstep. While my job was to effectively implement Administration policy on the ground in Honduras, at no time did anyone in the Department try to micro-manage my decisions.
There is a proper role for Washington and a proper role for the field. So, in Honduras in the period 2008-2011, I can say that at every stage the tactics and methods used on the ground were mine and my Country Team’s, and I had the full support of the Department, the NSC, and the Pentagon. My view has always been that if the Administration wants things done in a different way, they can always get another Chief of Mission.
In your speech about the incident in Kabul with the German mission, you talk about leveraging the support of Amb. Todd and with Amb. Shannon to resolve this. How did this work?
Again, my relationship with Tom and Bill was extremely important. Working the bureaucracy, like diplomacy, is very personal. We are not machines pressing buttons, but human beings talking and communicating. At the same time, my relationship with Tom and Bill was institutional. Tom was the senior career policy person in the Department. He was in contact with the Secretary every single day. If he was well informed about what we were doing in Afghanistan he was perfectly positioned to convey the Embassy’s perspective to the Secretary and other Seventh Floor Principals, which he did. This was extraordinarily useful for us. And Tom’s engagement with us gave us insights on the President’s and Secretary’s thinking and provided guidance as necessary.
The same with Bill Todd. As Acting M [Undersecretary for Management], he and I spoke every week and I briefed him both on the critical management, HR, security and budgetary issues, at the same time that I gave him a sense of what was happening on the ground in a country that he had serve in and knew well. Bill, like Tom, was in a position to convey to the Secretary the Kabul perspective, and in turn give us valued guidance on critical resource and management issues.
You note in your speech that the U.S.-German alliance has yielded so much for our two nations. You’ve also been a strong advocate for the U.S.-Australian alliance, after serving as Principal Officer in Sydney. The American public may not be as aware of the value of alliances as diplomats are, since we’re on the ground, forging those relationships, and seeing the benefit of them. Do you have any thoughts on how we can do a better job of telling the story of diplomacy to our compatriots?
America’s extraordinary influence around the world is in part a function of our great economic and military power, as well as our technological superiority. However, the real catalyst of U.S. influence is the fact that the U.S. has a valued trademark that many people around the world accept, value, and defer to. This is inexorably linked to our democratic values, and the strength of our political institutions that have yielded unprecedented political stability. Governments around the world trust the United States as a reliable power, a country they can work with in the promotion of a rules-based global system that works for large and small nations.
Despite our immense and unique set of assets, our ability to implement our goals and objectives requires us to maintain sharply-honed tools of statecraft. The most valued tools in our international arsenal are our frontline diplomats serving around the world to protect Americans overseas, support U.S. companies trying to enter new markets, develop coalitions to combat terrorism, and fight international organized criminal activity. We need to send a message to the American people that our diplomats are working 24-7 for them.
Frankly, I believe we should have somewhat smaller Embassies overseas, and expand the number of constituent posts and consulates so that our diplomats can more effectively advance American interests outside the host country capital city. The same in the United States. I believe the Department should be streamlined in Washington, and that some elements of the Department’s policy work should be located outside the Beltway and closer to the American people. For example, I believe we should move some of our EAP Bureau Officials to Honolulu, have a more robust WHA presence in Miami, or an EUR or NEA presence in New York. The idea of having our Foreign Service Officers working outside of Washington would go a long way to better connect our diplomats to the people they serve. The American people need to see the presence and visibility of our Foreign Service Officers working hand and glove with state and local governments to advance our international agenda. The effect of having more diplomats doing domestic assignments outside of Washington would help build constituencies that support the Foreign Service across America, not unlike the positive effect of having our military based in communities across the country.
Context
On May 31, 2017, a massive bomb detonated in the diplomatic quarter destroying the German Embassy and damaging other diplomatic missions. In the days to follow, Ambassador Llorens helped deal with the security and humanitarian crisis, and worked closely with his counterpart, German Ambassador Walter Haussman, to prevent the withdrawal of German diplomatic staff from Afghanistan. Germans were and are a “framework nation” in the U.S.-led NATO mission to Afghanistan “Resolute Support”. Germans were the second largest troop contributor, and maintained one of the four regional spokes—a major base in northern Afghanistan, near Masar-e-Sharif.
In a moment of crisis, Ambassador Llorens decided to house the German diplomatic delegation at the U.S. Embassy compound. For his efforts, German President Walter-Frank Steinmeier awarded him The Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, which is the highest civilian award given by the German government. The award cited his "leadership, courage, and decisiveness" in the midst of the crisis caused by the bombing and his unwavering support for the German diplomatic delegation. German Ambassador to the United States Emily Haber presented the award to Ambassador Llorens on June 25, 2019 in a ceremony at the German Embassy. Below are Ambassador Llorens' adapted remarks at the ceremony.
Remarks as delivered
Ambassador Hugo Llorens
German Embassy Award Ceremony
June 25, 2019, Washington DC
Thank you, Ambassador Haber! Thank you so much for taking time from your busy schedule and kindly hosting us and honoring me with this award. Let me express my appreciation to the Honorable Roya Rahmani, the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan for being here tonight. It is wonderful to see you. I also want to recognize my dear friend, Ambassador Hamid Sadig, who has come all the way from Kabul. As a former Ambassador to Germany he is very much in his element here. Thanks to all my friends and colleagues for coming, including some very prominent people such as National Security Advisor Steve Hadley, Under Secretary Tom Shannon, Deputy Under Secretary for Management Bill Todd, Ambassador Ron Neumann, and a pretty illustrious list of U.S. Ambassadors. Many of my mentors are here, and so many of you have had a major impact on my life, personally and professionally, including my Georgetown buddies of the Class of ‘77, prominent diplomats themselves, Peter and Lizanne Brennan. But of course, none more so than my wife, Lisett, who has made significant contributions to American diplomacy in her own right, including most recently through her service as the Director of Communications of the USAID Education Office in Kabul.
I am not sure I deserve something so prestigious, but I accept this award on behalf of the U.S. Embassy Kabul staff of 2017, and I am deeply honored by the recognition of his Excellency, the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. I also accept the award with the prayer that the brave Afghan people will be able to achieve the peace they have yearned for so long. True and sustained reconciliation in Afghanistan cannot be about winners or losers, but it must preserve hard fought freedoms and do nothing to besmirch the honor of thousands of young Afghans, Americans and Germans who have fallen in battle.
May 31, 2017 was a searing date that will remain etched in the memory of anyone who was in Kabul on that day. It was a day of death, and total and utter devastation. I remember being in my office that morning at 6:15 AM and having an e-mail exchange with the German Charge, Ulrich Ernst. German Ambassador Walter Haussman was not in the country when the bombing happened. Ulrich and I were working on schedules for an upcoming Kabul Process reconciliation conference and we were discussing a Berlin request for their SRAP to meet ours. Ulrich had proposed scheduling the meeting in the German Embassy. I expressed a preference for having the meeting in the U.S. Embassy and offered the possibility of a working lunch. Ulrich thought this would work and mentioned that there were various intelligence reports that the German Embassy might be targeted. I told him that I had also seen the reports, although again, at any one time we were seeing a constant intelligence stream through various channels of possible attacks against individual diplomatic missions. There was nothing firm on timing, and there were similar reports pointing to the U.S. Embassy as a target, along with NATO headquarters.
At approximately 8:00 AM I walked over to our Public Affairs studio to pre-tape video remarks to the Afghan people for Ramadan. In the middle of the taping, it was close to 8:30 AM, we heard a huge explosion. I have had an expeditionary career and have served in many countries in conflict and I am pretty used to weapons firing and bombs going off. However, this was different. It was on such a scale that I remember thinking, “boy, this is like Krakatoa!” It literally shook our massive Chancery building, and as it turned out we were a kilometer from ground zero. Immediately I rushed back to my office and went to the Embassy Crisis Management Center to get the initial briefings on what had happened. What we saw from the air surveillance cameras was a massive plume of smoke and fire coming out of the Southwest Quadrant of the diplomatic quarter. The blast had taken place right in front of the German Embassy. Imagine it happened at rush hour, so it was designed to maximize civilian casualties. Other Embassies close to the explosion were Indonesia, Britain, France, Iran, Turkey, and China. We had two U.S. properties in the immediate vicinity, one right across the street from the blast, which was a truck maintenance and processing facility, and just a bit south a property that provided offices and housed several dozen U.S. contractors who worked on our rule of law and administration of justice programs. Once I had a good sense of what had occurred, I returned to my office and called U.S. officials at the White House and the State Department and informed them of the incident. We also convened the Embassy’s inter-agency Emergency Action Committee (the EAC) to review the situation, make decisions on additional security measures, including closing the Embassy and shutting all movements in and out of the compound. We also issued instructions to our Embassy Air assets to get security and medical teams on the ground to provide emergency medical help and evacuation for the wounded. Just prior to entering the EAC meeting, I called the German Embassy and spoke to Ulrich. He reported that the front façade of the Embassy had been shattered, but that miraculously, and probably also due to good German engineering, the building had held and the fact that the staff offices were in the rear of the Chancery building had also minimized casualties. He admitted that they were shaken but they were dealing with the situation and command and control was in place. I told him I would speak to NATO Commander General Mick Nicholson to provide any additional perimeter security and I also offered any medical assistance that they might need. Following that call, I also remember speaking to my other colleagues, the British, French, Chinese and Canadian Ambassadors. During the day, we implemented security and emergency medical operations and took care of several dozen U.S. wounded, stayed in close touch with senior members of the Afghan government, including President Ghani, coordinated enhanced security for the diplomatic quarter, kept our Embassy staff and Washington informed, and managed press and citizen inquiries.
Later as the smoke cleared, we received the casualty figures, which included more than 100 dead and approximately 500 wounded. The videos of the event showed that the truck carrying the explosives was purporting to be a septic truck seeking entry into the German Embassy compound. It had the identical colors and markings of septic trucks that do this work for the individual Embassies in the diplomatic quarter. However, alert Afghan police manning a barrier, and the German Embassy security people wisely saw that while the company markings were correct, the license plate did not match the two trucks authorized entry into the German compound. Within seconds that the driver was refused entry, he detonated the explosives. The initial forensics from our explosives’ experts were that the truck packed 7,000 pounds or nearly 4 tons of high explosives. The information also pointed to the notorious Haqqani Network as the authors of the attack, and condemnations were issued from Kabul and around the world.
At approximately 3 PM I visited ground zero with Regional Security Officer Carlos Matus. What we witnessed was a Dantesque scene of total destruction. We were struck by the massive crater left by the bomb. It was 15 feet deep and 20-25 feet in diameter. I remember glancing across the street and saw that the German Chancery was completely and totally destroyed, and at that moment, for the first time, I felt great sadness (long pause) and just thought how humans had this uniquely ingenious capacity for destruction. From there I went about 100 meters to our contractor compound to walkthrough and assess the infrastructure damage, meet with the wounded, and give a pep talk to the staff. Everyone was stoic, no one panicked or asked to be evacuated -- I was very proud of them. As we left on our way to the parking lot to get into my vehicle, Carlos and I noticed that there were body parts strewn all over.
Again, once we began to emerge from the emergency response phase, one of my principal concerns was whether the destruction of the German Embassy would result in a decision to withdraw the German diplomatic staff from Afghanistan. Since NATO invoked Article 5 of its Charter on September 12, 2001 Germany has been one of our staunchest allies in Afghanistan. They have never flinched or faltered. After the U.S., Germany is the largest bilateral donor in Afghanistan with annual economic assistance disbursements totaling $1 billion. German largesse has made a huge positive difference in education, health, women’s empowerment, energy, agriculture, and governance, including support for elections and reconciliation. The German armed forces have also undertaken immense responsibilities on the military side. Germany is the lead coalition member responsible for military operations in the North, and has a large military base in Mazar Sharif in Balk province, and they have done a magnificent job all these many years.
With the return of Ambassador Haussman to Kabul, and I wish my dear friend was here tonight, we discussed the situation of German diplomatic staff. He confirmed that the German Embassy was uninhabitable from a human and security standpoint, and told me that on a short-term basis most of his team was housed at NATO headquarters, and others with the EU. However, he made clear that from a space perspective this was an unsustainable situation. He confided in me his concern that Berlin might make a quick decision to pull out diplomatic staff. I mentioned that any decision to withdraw German diplomats from Kabul would be a staggering blow to Coalition efforts. We discussed the possibility of getting the German delegation into our compound. I promised to check our space situation and I would get back to him. I immediately convened our Management team and told them of my thoughts of offering the Germans lodging in our compound on an emergency basis. My team welcomed the idea understanding that there were significant human, foreign policy and security equities that made this imperative. They immediately conducted a survey to determine how many apartments and rooms we might have to accommodate the German diplomatic delegation. My Management team completed the survey the same day, and informed me that we could comfortably provide housing and office space for 25 German staff in our Embassy compound. Ambassador Haussman and I met in my office and we discussed the idea of his team moving into the Embassy. We agreed that it was an emergency situation and that the sooner we were able to get the German delegation into our compound the better for everyone. At the end of that meeting in my office, we resolved this as our objective and we shook hands. Our Management and Security people took over from there and began working on an expedited plan to get the Germans in our compound immediately. Our respective teams were superb and in short order developed the protocols, logistics, housing, ID, communications, security, and motor vehicle arrangements for the move. I instructed my DCM and our Management people to let the Department know of our plans to accommodate the Germans in our compound on an emergency basis.
The following morning, our Management Counselor received word from the Legal Advisor with this message: “Ambassador Llorens and the Country Team do not, repeat, do not have authority to bring the Germans into the compound.” The Legal Advisor’s Office said we will need to sit down with the German Foreign Ministry and negotiate an MOU to cover all aspects of the German presence in the U.S. Embassy compound. My Management Counselor Rob Needham told the Legal Advisor’s Office that Ambassador Llorens had already made the commitment to the German Ambassador and shaken hands on the deal, and furthermore the Germans were already safely accommodated in our compound. After getting the message from the lawyers, I called Under Secretary Tom Shannon, who through my tenure leading our Embassy in Kabul was, along with Acting Under Secretary for Management Bill Todd, one of our strongest advocates in Washington. Tom, as usual, calmly took it all in stride. He said we had made the right call, and underscored that these were the kinds of decisions Chiefs of Mission are paid to make on the ground. He said he would head this off and personally speak to the Secretary. Which he did.
For the next year, our German colleagues were an integral part of our Mission community. They lived with us, ate with us, worked with us and celebrated with us, Oktoberfest, Marine Ball and Thanksgiving included! As I told Ambassador Haussman and his staff, when you are in our Embassy, you are home. They were a fantastic presence and their professionalism and positive attitude contributed mightily to strengthening our morale. Again, our ability to provide a platform for Ambassador Haussman and his superb team to manage their programs and implement their diplomatic initiatives was a success for everyone.
A final thought, and I believe that I speak for every single American who is here. One of the really special things about being here tonight with Ambassador Haber and her team is that it is an opportunity to celebrate the great alliance between the United States of America and Germany. After the end of World War II and the start of the Cold War, Berlin became an international beacon of freedom. Germany was the frontline, and they never flagged or failed; and in that time the proud German people brilliantly transformed their devastated homeland into one of the world’s largest, most dynamic and prosperous economies, and with the Wall crashing-down this now miraculously united Germany has evolved into one of the world’s pre-eminent democracies. And today, Germany is a force for good on everything from peace and stability in Europe, to human rights, to clean energy, to the fight against terror. We may not agree on everything, but we all know that over the past 70 years the German-U.S. alliance has yielded a huge dividend for people on both sides of the Atlantic. For those in and out of government, it must be our common goal to treasure and preserve this fraternal alliance that serves a sacred purpose.
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